4 October 1946 first flight 11 October 1946 to
British European Airways as G-AHOW and named Vanessa2 February
1948 to Ministry of Civil AviationTo James Stewart TravelTo
G S Sale.4 August 1950 sold to Trans World Charter3 December
1951 sold to Crewsair and named African TraderDecember 1952 sold
to Eagle Aviation11 January 1953 leased to Airwork10 March
1953 registered with the military serial XD636 and used for trooping
duties5 November 1954 sold to Trek Airways, South Africa and
registered ZS-DKI and named Louis Trichardt2 April 1955 lost
some fabric covering from a wing and made an emergency landing at an
airfield near Messina31 July 1958 sold to African Air Safaris
and registered G-AHOW and named Skukuza26 November 1959 African
Air Safaris changed its named to Air Safaris Ltd.4 May 1962
leased to Eros Airline (UK) Ltd.6 April 1964 sold to Air Ferry
Ltd.28 October 1966 sold to InvictaSeptember 1967 withdrawn
from service at Manston.3 February 1969 officially withdrawn
from use (wfu)Scrapped in late 1969

Vickers Viking
VC.1A

ZS-DKHc/n
121

The Vickers VC.1 Viking was a twin-engined
short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber. The
initial nineteen production aircraft (Mark 1A) carried between 21
and 24 passengers. The fuselage was metal but the geodetic wings and
tail planes were fabric covered.

The VC stands
for Vickers Commercial, sometimes also called Vickers
Civil.

Technical
details Vickers VC1A
Viking

Wingspan

89’ 3”

Length

62’ 10”

Height

19’ 6”

Weight loaded

34,000 lb

Weight empty

18,360 lb

Max speed

263 mph (cruise) at
10,000’

Cruise speed

210 mph recommended
cruise

Ceiling

10000’

Range S.A.

1700 miles for 7180 lb* 1920 miles for 5120
lb*

Engines

Bristol Hercules 630

Crew

4

Passengers

21-24

Wing area (gross)

882 square feet

*Max fuel weight

1700 miles, 750 galls @ 210 mph, 1920 galls
@ 171 mph.

Built at the Vickers-Armstrongs factory in
Weybridge, England, c/n 121 first took to the air on 30 August 1946,
registered as G-AHOT with British European Airways and was used in
the 1948 Berlin Airlift. On 26 September 1954 she was sold to Trek
Airways, registered ZS-DKH and operated in Protea Airways colours, a
second airline of Trek, and for many years, transported hundreds of
passengers on leisurely and scenic flights between South Africa and
Europe.

One of the last people
to fly on the Viking was the American singer Jim Reeves when he
toured South Africa in late 1962.

Jim Reeves starred in
the film "Kimberley Jim" (first called "Strike It Rich") filmed in
South Africa in 1963. It was Jim's only full-length movie.

After 13.881 flying
hours ZS-DKH was flown from Rand Airport to the old Baragwanath
Airfield, original home of the Johannesburg Light Plane Club, on the 18th of
December 1962 and was disassembled and transported by road to
Armadale south of Johannesburg, where, in January 1963 she was
placed atop the roof of the Caltex Garage owned by Victor Edward de
Villiers and known as “Vic’s Viking Garage" where she became a
famous, if forlorn, landmark. The garage was previously known as
"Vic's Goggomobile Garage".

On 5 March 1987, the Viking was replaced by SAAF
Avro Shackleton 1723 and donated to the South Africa Airways
Museum Society
. The Viking’s wings were removed and she was towed to
the then Jan Smuts Airport.

Here she languished in the harsh African
climate becoming a tatty hulk standing not too far from the engine
run-up bay at OR Tambo International Airport.

Restoration of ZS-DKH got no further than
depicted in this photograph taken on 8 January
1994. Photograph: Omer
Mees.

In early 2015, 28 years after her arrival at
the then Jan Smuts Airport, there was renewed interest in the
forlorn and derelict hulk, standing not too far from the
engine run-up bay at OR Tambo International Airport, and
preparations began in earnest to relocate her to the museum at
Rand Airport. Matt Harvey from SAA Technical took on the
project and after almost a year of preparation the aircraft
was ready to be relocated by December 2015, although she would
have to wait until January 2016 to be finally
moved.

During January of 2015 John "Jaws"
Austin-Williams met up with John Illsley of Pretoria Boys High
School. John expressed an interest in our museum and the
preservation tasks we tackle and kindly offered the assistance
of the boys from the Aeronautical Society of Pretoria Boys
High. The first Viking workday was held on Saturday 14 March
with Matt plus John and his boys in
attendance.

John reports…

“I had fifteen boys at ORT on Saturday and we managed to
remove the two props. However, I don’t think Matt was given
the right info about the wing attachment points as I’m
convinced there are two huge pins that we didn’t count on and
which could not be extracted. It is a nice project and the
boys were very excited and useful up to a point. We will
probably help again in mid-April at which point I hope we can
pull off the wings and stabilizers.”

The Viking’s outer wings were removed on Saturday 18 April
2015. Matt Harvey along with John Illsley and some lads from
the Pretoria Boys High Aeronautical Society got the job done.
John Illsley sent in the following report:The Aeronautical
Society of Pretoria Boys High returned to the SAA Technical
Area on Saturday 18th April to resume battle with the wings of
the Vickers Viking. The work force was greatly diminished by
the onset of the winter sports season at the school, but the
small team just worked twice as hard! While waiting for our
crane to be returned from working on a current SAA airliner,
we unpacked many of the items that have been stored inside the
Viking fuselage, including seats that were from a more recent
aircraft as well as the engine cowlings.

When our SAA technical man, Matt Harvey, returned with the
crane we then set about removing the wing attachment pins that
are located within the engine and undercarriage nacelle and
which consist of a threaded and tapered pin that has its own
cranking handle. These took a bit of persuading thanks to
corrosion, but once removed the wings were suspended briefly
on the nylon straps before being gently lowered onto old
tyres.

By now well practised, the second wing came off even more
quickly. Unfortunately the tool we needed for removing the
tail planes was not yet available and so we couldn’t remove
these components.

The boys were taken for a walk through hangar eight and
seeing the SAA maintenance activity was a big treat. We were
again kindly hosted in the SAA Technical social area before
heading home. The boys are keen to be part of the actual
moving of the aircraft to Rand Airport, but we will have to
see if we are invited back!

John and the Boys
are most certainly invited back!

On Saturday
the 15th of August 2015 the vertical stabiliser, rudder, horizontal
stabiliser and elevators were removed. Thanks to Leonie van
Schalkwyk and Wynand Myburgh who assisted Matt
Harvey.

Sadly Victor
Edward de Villiers of “Vic’s Viking Garage” fame passed away
on Thursday the 8th of October 2015. Vic purchased ZS-DKH from
Trek Airways. After 13.881 flying hours ZS-DKH was flown from
Rand Airport to the old Baragwanath Airfield, original home of
the Johannesburg Light Plane Club on the 18th of December
1962.

She was disassembled and
transported by road to Armadale south of Johannesburg, where,
in January 1963 she was placed atop the roof of the Caltex
Garage owned by Victor Edward de Villiers and known as “Vic’s
Viking Garage" where she became a famous, if forlorn,
landmark.

The garage was previously
known as "Vic's Goggomobile Garage". On the 5th of March 1987,
the Viking was replaced by SAAF Avro Shackleton 1723 and
donated to the South Africa Airways Museum Society. The
Viking’s wings were removed and she was towed to the then Jan
Smuts Airport.

Vic de Villiers with his
photo album, 3rd January 2015. Photograph: John
Austin-Williams.

Plenty of
effort was required to remove the right elevator!
Saturday 15 August 2015.

No tail
feathers! Saturday 15 August 2015.
Photograph: Matt
Harvey.

The Viking ready
to be moved to Rand Airport. Saturday 15 August 2015. Photograph:
Matt Harvey.

Surprisingly the tyres remained
inflated after being pumped with nitrogen, on 2 Dcember
2015, after many years of standing deflated! Photograph:
Matt Harvey.

On Saturday, 23 January 2016, the
Viking was moved from the grass down to the SAA technical hard
stand.Photograph:
Matt Harvey.

Bad news! Unfortunately the right
hand tyre disintegrated. Tyres of the size 45x16.00-18 are
unobtainable so... first problem to be solved.As at March
2016 we were looking for Douglas DC-8 main landing gear tyres,
44.5x16.5-18.Photograph:
Matt Harvey.

On 9 March 2016, a wet and dreary
morning, the Viking’s wings were transported to the
museum.Thanks to Transcor.Photograph:
Matt Harvey.

Offloading the Viking’s wings at the
museum. 9 March 2016.Photograph: Matt
Harvey.

The next step was to find a
suitable position to lift the Viking over the SAA Technical
boundary wall. Once identified a Geometric Route Clearance
Report was prepared by ARC (Africa Route Clearance
Consultants) and submitted to Gauteng Province, Department of
Roads and Transport for approval in November 2016.

In May 2016 a pair of 41x15.0-18
tyres (as used on DC-9) was donated to the Museum by Brian
Rothman of Square Air in Cape Town. Original Viking tyres were
45x16.00-18 and no longer obtainable.

Although we had located suitable
tyres for the Viking it was not possible to fit them at SAA
Technical. A horizontal bar was fitted to the Viking
undercarriage and the Viking placed on top of a suitable dolly
for ease of moving within SAA
Technical.

Viking strapped to a dolly, and parked
next to the radio aerial masts next to Jones Road. GPS -26.140890, 28.222734
.
22 November 2016. Photograph: André Vivier (ARC).